Oh, for the days when I used to shovel s..t and did it willingly to help pay the board for my dear old Henry. He was 1/2 quarter horse and 1/2 percheron. He wasn't real tall, just 14 hands but he was stout and big around like me, so we fit. I willingly mucked all the stalls daily for the privilege of taking care of him, and thoroughly enjoyed my time there.

I was familiar with several stables at that time, and know that one of their main concerns was getting rid of the mounting pile of fragrant manure, just out the back of each stable. Sometimes they would get a local farmer to come by and collect said piles and spread the bounty on their own fields. Why more people don't think of this resource is beyond me. Why go to a garden center, and buy lessor quality cow manure, when the horse source is mostly free, is again beyond me. More than one source recommends covering garden beds with several inches of horse manure at the end of each growing season, for its nutritive qualities and the fact that they have found that dogs and foxes normally won't enter said beds once the horse manure is in place.

One last quality of horse manure is that I personally find the general aroma pleasing, and reminds me of one of my best friends now long parted.

J --- I totally agree with you! Just the one truckload Mark brought home today was enough to keep me chipper for days, and thoughts of the whole pile make me feel like I've eaten a whole pan of brownies. (Well, not that nauseous feeling you get a few minutes later. Just the immediate well being you feel until your stomach starts complaining.)

Mark thinks he's found enough manure to sate me, but I'm afraid he's going to be disappointed there. Even the four or five pickup truck loads he thinks are present are only barely going to give me enough for the essentials...